Memories of Emil Přikryl's Students

In the School of Architecture Emil Přikryl at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, 69 students have passed through in two decades. You can regularly familiarize yourself with the winning projects, awarded realizations, and other activities of his graduates on the pages of archiweb. In every project of Emil's students, one can read the roots that provided wings, but at the same time bind. On the occasion of the awarding of the ČKA Honor 2009, we have the most appropriate words from those who spent many years with this year's laureate as one family.

We were lucky to experience the Velvet Revolution at the AVU. At the beginning of 1990, when it was already clear that Milan Knížák would lead the AVU and that architect Šrámková would compete for a place at the AVU School of Architecture, my colleague Petr Foglar and I couldn't help but go to Emil Přikryl to persuade him to participate in the competition. The consequences of his participation are generally known – he won the competition and has been teaching at the School of Architecture for 20 years now. I don't know if our idea unintentionally cost Emil a lot of money and potential realizations, but I have no doubt that future students of AVU gained a lot from his decision back then and his incredibly honest approach to work at school! Congratulations on the award!

We are Přikryl's students. He gave us no other option for communication than to mobilize all our inner strengths. It was a furnace. I will never forget it, and if it weren't for him, we might have given up already.

Emil Přikryl is exceptional. He gave me a lot: the courage to take risks, a sense of precision and accuracy, an overview, will, a feel for construction, and the ability to distinguish what is important, the notion of appropriateness, and a sense of humility. I am grateful to him for that.

I remember how one consultation at my desk, which wasn’t exactly overflowing with work, turned into a three-hour lecture by Emil about counting in architecture ... I then lay in bed at home with a fever for thirty hours...

You taught us, Emil, to give our maximum and not to be afraid. You didn’t tell us how to design, but we felt your constant presence and authority. It was a method to lead us to independence and the ability to work.

Besides all that you sent me into life with and what I am still unable to fully appreciate, I remember little stories. How the laureate mistakenly bought about two thousand glass beads on Murano, about the delightful week-long trip to Rome, about the burned head peeking out of the grass on the Palatine, or how he washes his teeth in the river under the village in the morning at Kuks. I still owe you that Kuks, Emil.

I heartily congratulate Emil Přikryl on being awarded the ČKA Honor 2009. I fondly remember the wonderful time I spent in the company of Emil Přikryl at the School of Architecture.